Cancer Prevention - Science topic

Press release, 22 October 2024

Understanding the physics of cancer, preventing metastases: Leopoldina honours the physician Bahriye Aktas and the biophysicists Jochen Guck and Josef Käs with the Greve Prize

Dealing with metastases is one of the major challenges of cancer therapy. More than 90 percent of deaths caused by cancer are linked to metastases. Understanding the conditions that cause cancer metastases and how these move through the body is key to developing new approaches to cancer treatment. Biophysics can provide valuable insights, as cancer is also subject to the laws of physics. In honour of their groundbreaking insights into the movement of tumour cells, the physician Professor Dr Bahriye Aktas, and the biophysicists Professor Dr Jochen Guck, and Professor Dr Josef Käs are receiving the 2024 Greve Prize from the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. The award, endowed with 250,000 euros, is donated by the Helmut and Hannelore Greve Foundation for Science, Development and Culture.

The biophysicist Professor Dr Josef Käs from the University of Leipzig/Germany and Professor Dr Jochen Guck from the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Light in Erlangen/Germany are leading global scientists in the physics of cancer. Their research, some of which they have conducted jointly, investigates the physical properties of cells when they interact with surrounding tissue. They have managed to demonstrate how tumour cells actively change from solid and stiff to a fluid and soft condition in order to move between the dense tissue of the human body and form metastases. This discovery has led to a paradigmatic shift in how cancer cells are viewed and motivated collaboration with the physician Professor Dr Bahriye Aktas from the University of Leipzig Medical Center. Aktas has made it possible to study human tumour samples directly after operating and thus also live-cell microscopy of the active deformation of cancer cells. Building on the work of their predecessor Professor Dr Michael Höckel, this raises the question of what limits cancer cells in the body experience. “Bahriye Aktas, Jochen Guck, and Josef Käs provide an impressive example of how interdisciplinary basic research can significantly deepen the understanding of cancerous diseases,” says Leopoldina President Professor (ETHZ) Dr Gerald Haug. “Studying the behaviour of tumour cells from the perspective of physics and linking it to direct insights gained from medical institutions has the potential to develop completely new means of treating cancer.”

The potential for cancer treatment is already apparent with respect to breast cancer. Whether the cancer has metastasised or not is key in determining the success of therapies. To date, however, it has not been possible to accurately predict when a tumour forms metastases. Käs and Aktas, working together with Professor Dr Axel Niendorf (Hamburg/Germany), managed to identify markers that, in combination with existing criteria, are significantly better at indicating a tumour’s potential to metastasise. They have done so using biophysical concepts, the central idea of which – that metastasising cancer cells must be softer – Jochen Guck played an important role in developing. Cancer cells in primary tumours are, at the local level, very solid and densely packed. In order to release themselves from the original tumour and move through the human body, cancer cells must soften, allowing the cancer cell aggregate to become fluid. In the study carried out by Käs and Aktas together with Axel Niendorf, the scientists identified the histological characteristics of the cancer cells that become fluid: they were longer and had deformed cell nuclei, allowing them to “squeeze” through neighbouring tissue. Their study of more than 1,000 breast cancer patients offers a strong indication that these deformed cell and nuclei forms can be used as a reliable marker for a cancer’s aggressiveness, and to predict a tumour’s potential to metastasise. This could permit breast cancer treatments to be more individually tailored to patients. In Erlangen, parallel to the activities in Leipzig, Guck developed a high-throughput method to measure the deformability of cells (real-time deformability cytometry, RT-DC). This method is particularly suited to finding substances that can change cancer cell mechanics to prevent metastases.

Bahriye Aktas (born in 1975) is Professor of Gynaecology at the University of Leipzig and Director of the Department of Gynaecology at the Leipzig Medical Center. Aktas studied medicine at the Justus Liebig University Gießen/Germany. She completed her medical training as a gynaecologist and obstetrician at the University Hospital Essen/Germany, obtained her habilitation there in 2013, and was appointed Associate Professor in 2017. That year she switched to the University of Leipzig. As a gynaecologist, her focus is on minimally invasive and robot-assisted surgery, which is used for gentler and precise operations with improved chances of healing, and she also has a particular interest in surgery for cancer treatment. She and her predecessor have helped to globally establish new operation methods that take into account how a tumour spreads.

A 35 years old lady, a known case of Psoriasis is on Homeopathic treatment. She has been married for the last 2 years and has now reported for evaluation for infertility. She has normal menstrual periods. Her general, systemic and pelvic examinations are within normal limits except for psoriatic patches. Laboratory investigations are normal. On pelvic USG, uterus is normal size and endomyomtrial echotexture is normal. There are 2 small subserous fibroids, one small cyst in right adnexa adjacent to ovary (? parovarian cyst) and an endometrial polyp of 13 x 8 mm size. Planning for hysteroscopic polypectomy. Can one go ahead with laparohysteroscpic evaluation in this case along with polypectomy?

Dear Researchers:

Could you please share some simple cures or prevention for COVID-19, Cold, Flu or Influenza, and possibly Other Viruses, and Cancers?

Updates on Oct. 10, 2023: First, many thanks to all contributors to this discussion. Here are some Natural Approaches found from surveying literature in medicine to Boost our Immune Systems against viruses such as COVID-19, Cold, Flu or Influenza infections and to avoid/minimize developing further inflammations in the lungs and hearts caused by some of those viruses:

Give it a try, please! Especially if you increase your Vitamin D level to a required level and consume Vitamin C sources, e.g., oranges, on a daily basis, you can check how rarely you would catch the virus. Or, even after catching the virus, the virus will likely develop very mild symptoms in your body.

1- Daily uptake of Vitamin D pills up to 100 IU per 1 kg weight is safe and very important, recommended by Afshar et al. (2000) and Dr. Hamid Sajjadi in an interview, to RAISE the Vitamin D level in our body to the POINT which is REQUIRED to BOOST our IMMUNE SYSTEMS against Viruses and Diseases including Cancers.

Please read the following article by Afshar et al. (2000) about the importance of vitamin D and the required daily dose of it (Up to 100 IU per 1 kg weight) to boost our Immune Systems.

Please also read the following Review article by Jordan et al. (2022) about the importance of Vitamin D on the level of infection & disease progression for COVID-19. You may find in the article the importance of our Forgotten SUN.

Vitamin D is rarely available in food sources, except in fatty fish which needs to be eaten high enough to get the required amount of Vitamin D for a body.

Another good natural source is daily sunbathing with naked skin; however, in cloudy regions such as Europe, sunbathing doesn't work well.

Vitamin D helps to absorb Calcium in our intestines and thus, in order to avoid excessive absorption of Calcium by our body, it would be better to use Vitamin D pills with Calcium sources such as warmed-up milk and Magnesium sources such as bananas on a daily basis. Because magnesium competes with calcium in our intestines to get absorbed.

Here is a text from A Review article by Kulie et al. (2009) about some of the importance of Vitamin D on our health:

"Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that plays an important role in Bone Metabolism and seems to have some Anti-Inflammatory and Immune-Modulating properties. In addition, recent epidemiologic studies have observed relationships between low vitamin D levels and multiple disease states.

Low vitamin D levels are associated with increased overall and Cardiovascular mortality, Cancer incidence and mortality, and Autoimmune Diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis. Although it is well known that the combination of vitamin D and calcium is necessary to maintain Bone Density as people age, vitamin D may also be an independent risk factor for falls among the Elderly."

2- Having Good Nutrients including Protein sources, Minerals, and Other Vitamins, e.g., C, A, and E, sources from fresh fruits, vegetables, and nuts. For example, the good sources of fruits and vegetables for these vitamins could be a daily use of 1-2 Oranges for Vitamin C, Carrots for Vitamin A, and Almonds or Sunflower Seeds for Vitamin E.

As Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin, the excess of it will be excreted from the body, it needs to be consumed every day to provide everyday vitamin C requirements for the body, as it is the 2nd most important vitamin after Vitamin D to boost our Immune Systems against viruses and diseases.

And, Vitamin B family from grains, poultry, and meat sources.

3- After the infection by those viruses, gargling salty water to disinfect the throat to avoid further movement of the virus into the lungs as the virus may stay in the throat for a few days

4- Inhaling Steamed Fresh Leaves, if not available, the Oil, of Eucalyptus 4-5 times a day for several continuous days to kill the virus in the lungs.

Here is A Review article by Mieres-Castro et al. (2021) about the "Antiviral Activities of Eucalyptus Essential Oils: Their Effectiveness as Therapeutic Targets against Human Viruses"

Australian Aboriginals are very much using Eucalyptus to Treat Infections.

5- Having plenty of Warm Drinks to wash out the virus from our body and dilute the blood to avoid blood clotting.

6- Having enough sleep and daily activities/exercises

7- Kids are proven to have High Immunity Against COVID-19, likely due to having a high amount of Melatonin, the Sleep Hormone, in their blood. So, that is why kids sleep very much as you know.

Melatonin production in our body usually decreases with increasing age. Thus, we may use daily melatonin pills after the infection based on what physicians may prescribe for us.

Here is A Review article by Carrillo-Vico et al. (2013) about the Importance of Melatonin on the Functionality of Our Immune Systems:

8- Avoid Fear/Panic as it Substantially Deteriorates the Functionality of Immune Systems against viruses and diseases.

Here is an interview by Dr. Lauren Deville about How Fear Affects Our Immune System:

Exercise can impact cancer prevention through various mechanisms but its unclear on which extent it works.

Kindly highlights some points related to this.

can we treat breast cancer with vitamin d?

In addition to the beneficial effects on oxidative stress, cardiovascular health, nervous system diseases, aging, and cancer prevention, cocoa has been revealed as a food with immunoregulatory properties; a remarkable effect on the immune system. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3671179/

Dark chocolate contains a higher amount of phytochemicals than milk or white chocolate do and is linked to reducing inflammation in the body; it may reduce the severity of symptoms associated with arthritis. The key is consuming foods with a high cocoa content, ideally 70 % or higher.

Chocolate is an energy-dense food and could easily contribute to weight gain if you over-consume it so carefully enjoy the health benefits of chocolate in moderation.

An interesting discussion by a group of Rheumatology doctors and patients has been raised on this matter too.

My investigation is related to measures countries (Mexico for example) have taken focusing on lung cancer prevention, considering sustainable environmental policies.

"In chronic inflammation, IL-6 has a detrimental role that favours mononuclear cell accumulation at the site of injury, through continuous MCP-1 secretion, angioproliferation and anti-apoptotic functions on T cells [30]. This may increase serum levels of IL-6 and provide the basis for the amplification step of chronic inflammatory proliferation."

Interleukin-6 is released by monocytes and macrophages in response to other inflammatory cytokines which include interleukin-11, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-beta.

"Chronic inflammation can result from the following:

Interleukin 2 Receptor (CD25) Soluble

Interleukin 12

Interferon gamma

Interleukin 4

Interleukin 5

Interleukin 10

Interleukin 13

Interleukin 1 beta

Interleukin 6

Interleukin 8

Tumor Necrosis Factor - alpha

Interleukin 2

Interleukin 17

If CRC patients had a hair sample analyzed for fungal cultures, what fungi would be found?

The event of death by metastasis or recurrence is very common, many researchers have linked the tendency of some tumors to re-appear to the presence of occult or dormant cancer cells that may have a phenotype that allows them to remain "hidden" from the immune response. However, the understanding of these cells and the mechanisms that they use to achieve evasion remain mostly unknown. It is critical to understand these cells better and to be able to detect their presence for they are of great therapeutic importance.

Dear Sir/Madam, I invited as a guest editor from high quality journals to handle special issues. If anyone can prepare a review similar to my review papers, particularly about a natural product in cancer prevention with focus on the structure activity relationship and mechanism of action, please kindly let me know to send an official letter. At this stage you should just send the title, authors and affiliation and abstract. Please kindly let me know as soon as you can. The suggested deadline for sending review is about 3 month. Best wishes, Suggeted topic: Genotoxicity of different agents and possble protection. Reducing side effects of radiotherapy and chomotherapy. Next generation of cancer therapy; Natural products. Natural products as novel therapeutic compounds. Radiation protection.

We sequenced the exons of some healthy persons, and we know that some of them run the risk of developing cancers. Is it feasible to develop preventive cancer vaccines? The vaccines would secure them from developing lung cancer, liver cancer, etc. Thanks.

There are a lot of published data that showed association between vitD deficiency and many disorders e.g. diabetes, metabolic syndrome, CVD, cancer,...

We are listening an uninterrupted flow of screening aand treatament of breast cancer, but neve-ever of primary prevention of breast cancer, before the signs of the disease appear. What is wrong with the public health system and polict?

Treatment for Cancer nowaydays like surgery and chemotherapy is really expensive for majority Cancer pasien in Indonesia, exspecially at Borneo. Can Cancer be cured with any methods that not too expensive but effective and efficient? 

(Figure 1 Source)

Phytonutrients properties of functional foods against colon cancer-inducing agents, such as azoxymethane, in animal models

Vitamin D inhibits prostaglandins associated with cancer in serum and nipple aspirate fluid.

Hi,

Greetings!

Lifestyle modification can bring down the incidence of cancer, improve prognosis and quality of life in cancer survivors.

Can you please share your opinion or experience in implementing Lifestyle medicine in cancer prevention and prognosis.

Briefly, the Breast and Prostate Cancer Cohort Consortium(BPC3) is a consortium of breast cancer case-control sets nested in seven cohorts: the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II), the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition Cohort (EPIC), the Multiethnic Cohort (MEC), the Nurses’ Health Study I and II (NHS and NHSII), the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (PLCO), and the Women’s Health Study (WHS). But how to access this dataset.

Dear Dr Akhtar and Dr Swamy,

I take this opportunity to introduce myself as Dr Naveen Kaushal, assistant Professor in Panjab University, Chandigarh. I had contributed a book chapter entitled "Usefulness of Ocimum sanctum Linn (Holy Basil orTulsi) in cancer prevention: An update"  alongwith Prof. Shrinath Baliga in the book  entitled  "Anticancer Plants: Properties and Applications".

However, till date we have not received any information about the status of the book/ chapter we have contributed.

📷

How the Ketogenic Diet Works

It is known that many of the causes of cancer are related to environmental factors (radiation, chemical contamination of water, food, air, among others) and this question intends to gather ideas for a research topic related to Finite Element Method, Computer Fluid Dynamics, Finite Differences, Continuum Mechanics, Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics in order to advance the knowledge in cancer prevention and treatment.

Much thanks.

My compound have effect on delaying the growth rate of C.elegans, particularly on L3 and L4 stage. I want to explore the mechanism of this phenotype with the heterochronic pathway, but there is few papers related to this. 

Presently, I am working on breast cancer. I want to know collecting which type of sample is better to understand the disease pathogenesis.

1. Blood Sample

2. Tissue Sample

use of person-centred therapy in family counselling.

Under conditions of:

Not feeling comfortable with the treatment decision?

Being diagnosed with a rare type of cancer?

Having several options for how to treat the cancer?

Not being able to see a cancer expert?

Hello researchers

In the attached table , we have 250 samples each one of them had been genotyped and diagnosed histologically to its stage of cancer .

what is the most suitable statistical method which can be used to assess if there is any kind of relationship between each genotype and cancer stage .

best regards

Wish I could know if HIFU ablation technique will be discussed.

I'm looking for an english version of the Illness Perception questionnaire - Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire for Healthy People (IPQ-RH). Thanks in advance.

A 23 years old girl has been having recurrent vaginitis for the last one year.She has been in relationship for the last few years. Barrier contraception is being used with the present partner. She used to have unprotected intercourse with the previous partner. The clinical picture is that of fungal vaginitis. Local antifungal agent, Clotrimazole (at times along with Clindamycin) have been administered few times. She was put on once a week Flucanozole tablet for 6 weeks. The couple had taken combination of Azithromycin, Flucanozole and Secnidazole few months back. GTT done recently is WNL. HIV and VDRL were done in February and repeated few days back. They are non reactive. High vaginal swab has been taken for culture. Vaginal secretions have been collected for cytology. Report is awaited. How to manage this case?

In planning a cancer education intervention, I have minor interest in assessing cancer prevention knowledge, but am much more interested in behavior.  I would like to have measures of cancer prevention behaviors that capture the wide range of risk/protective factors.  For example:

Smoking, tobacco use, (+ second-hand smoke exposure)

Moderate to vigorous physical activity and sedentary behavior 

Healthfulness of diet, including red/processed meat, fruits and vegetables, beans and legumes, whole grains, sugar-sweetened beverages, etc.

Sun protection, including shade, peak sun exposure, hats, sunscreen, etc.

Vaccination for Hepatitis B and HPV

Maintaining a healthy weight (BMI percentile)

(+ Possibly also alcohol consumption)

Is there an available validated cancer prevention index for children or adolescents that combines factors such as these into an overall score?

Is there an established and valid way to combine objective and self-report items to get an index of cancer prevention behavioral risk?

Thus far, I've found the following citation, but haven't yet seen the instrument: Melnyk BM. Healthy Lifestyles Behavior Scale. Hammondsport NY: COPE for HOPE, Inc., 2003

I am about to dig myself into & conduct a research on health marketing, more specifically health-consciousness & prevention in general. I would be more than happy to know which the top relevant papers in this field are. What is the best scale to measure health-consciousness & prevention in general?

I will do my research in Hungary. Should you be interested to collaborate to compare research findings in different countries/cultures, please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

I am working on a research project and need

Breast Cancer Database of Younger and Older Women to determine MODIFIABLE RISK FACTORS for Breast Cancer Prevention, with following attributes:

 

I would be interested to hear from oncologists if they tell their patients to take vitamin D supplements and if so how much. 

There is a great deal of data suggesting Vitamin D would be useful in both cancer prevention and treatment.  There is actually quite a good summary of the data at www.vitaminD3world.com  It would appear that definitive prospective studies with Vitamin D in the major cancers have still not been conducted.  High dose versus low dose Vitamin D in advanced breast, colon and lung cancer would probably be the quickest way to demonstrate benefits.  Would be interested to hear thoughts on this

We would like to give our mice a clinically relevant treatment of 5-Fluorouracil rather than the single 150mg/kg that seems to be more std with mice. However a conversion of a 5 day treatment for colon cancer in the clinic works out to giving the mice 132mg/kg per day for 5 days, which seems to me like it would be lethal. I am struggling to find access to literature on this (the paper below seems perfect but don't have access), does anyone have any information that could help us plan this experiment? Thank you. 

According to the National Cancer Institute, the FDA has approved two types of vaccines to prevent cancer: vaccines against the hepatitis B virus, which can cause liver cancer, and vaccines against human papillomavirus types 16 and 18, which are responsible for about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. The FDA has also approved one cancer treatment vaccine for men with metastatic prostate cancer. Perhaps this could be more general and effective at lower costs than some other prevention and treatments - what are your thoughts?

looking for validated survey to examine factors that enable and impede breast cancer screening as well as measure breast cancer and prevention knowledge.

It is now generally agreed that aspirin reduces the overall risk of both getting cancer and dying from cancer. This effect is particularly beneficial against colorectal cancer.  Some studies have concluded that the benefits are greater than the risks of aspirin induced bleeding in those at average risk. However, other studies were unclear if the benefits are greater than the risk. Both aspirin which is a cyclooxygenase inhibitor and clopidogrel which is an adenosine diphosphate receptor inhibitor are antiplatelet agents.  Is there any evidence that clopidogrel may be useful in cancer prevention?

Is there a 'gold standard' model that is more predictive than others? Strengths vs. weaknesses of the various models?

African

HIFU as fairly a new technology in the field of therapy using sonography.

70% or more of women in LMICs present with late stage breast cancer (BC). Most of those are ER-BC which occurs at a younger age and therefore in more dense breasts. Due to dense breasts, and of course, lack of resources, mammography is out of the question.

That leaves us with clinical breast exam (CBE) and breast self-exam (BSE), both of which are not known to reduce mortality. However, both can potentially downstage disease, CBE being better than BSE. So does that leave CBE as the only option for early detection and/or screening for BC in LMICs?

Many possibilities have been proposed, but what do you suggest to do in subjects with the tendevcy to develop recurrent polyps?

We are working on cancer prevention using neuroblastoma cells. Neuroblastoma cell lines include: substrate-adherent (S), neuroblastic (N) and internediate (I) cell types on which we usually do our experiments. But how can we resolve the use of control cell lines to ensure that the drug has/has not any side effects in normal cells?

I am involved in a community based cancer awareness, early diagnosis and treatment programmes in India. We are in the process of redesigning the whole programme. Does anybody know of ongoing community based cancer prevention and control programmes from where I can obtain inputs for our programme?

I do a literature study about Immunologic characteristics and vaccination of colon cancer. Can someone give information about Biobase. Is Biobase available for isolated research ?